Cloud Busting 买大炮阻冰雹？
文字难度：★★☆
The spirit of a 2)fabled 3)rainmaker is still alive and well in Californian farmers’latest attempts to control the weather.
It is tempting to say that southern California has not seen anything like it since the 4)heyday of 5)Hatfield the rainmaker, but John Diepersloot has an entirely different aim. 
Where Hatfield the rainmaker’s calling was to make it pour, Diepersloot, a peach and 6)apricot farmer from the 7)San Joaquin valley, wants to stop the 8)hail that can ruin his crop.
Diepersloot has installed 24 9)cannons on his 1,200 10)acre farm. At the approach of a storm, his 20 foot cannons 11)emit an electronic 12)blast. As the sound waves travel up into the sky, they disrupt the water that is gathering to turn into hail, causing it to fall as mere rain. At least that’s the theory, and an expensive one at that: Diepersloot’s cannons 13)set him back $50,000 to $70,000 each (￡26,000-￡36,000).
“It’s the science of nature,”Diepersloot told the 14)Associated Press. “The first year I had them, there was a storm where I saw my neighbor’s fields had damage and mine didn’t.”The scientific 15)establishment, however, sees things differently.
“It would have to be something pretty major to 16)upset hail,?said Charles Knight of the 17)National Center for Atmospheric Research in 18)Colorado. ’If you exploded an atomic bomb in a cloud, that might do something.”
Harry Andris, of the University of California, was pessimistic: ’There just isn’t a lot of technology that we can use to alter the weather. Some of the things that farmers try aren’t that effective. Unfortunately,”he added, “you have to buy them to try them.”The Associated Press goes on to say that “a small group of farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and across the country is putting faith-and tens of thousands of dollars-into hail cannons.” 
一位传奇的造雨大师的精神仍在，并在最近加利福尼亚州的农场主们试图控制天气的行动中再次体现。
可以说自从造雨大师哈特菲尔德的鼎盛时期过去后，南加利福尼亚州已经很久没发生这样的事情了。不过，约翰·迪普斯路特的目的却完全不同。
造雨大师哈特菲尔德的职业是使大雨倾盆，而迪普斯路特，美国加州圣华金谷的一位种植桃树和杏树的农场主，却只想阻止会毁坏他庄稼的冰雹。
迪普斯路特在他那片面积为1200英亩（约490万平方米）的农场上安装了24门大炮。当暴风雪逼近时，他那些长达20英尺（约6米）的大炮就会发射一种电子冲击波。当该声波到达天空时，它们会扰乱在空气中聚集进而形成冰雹的水蒸气，致使那些水蒸气仅以雨水形式降落下来。至少理论上是这样，而要把这一理论付诸实践花费不菲：迪普斯路特的每门大炮都耗资5到7万美元（即2.6万到3.6万英镑）。
“这是自然科学，” 迪普斯路特告诉美联社的记者，“在我买了这些大炮的第一年，来了一场暴风雪。我邻居家的田地都被暴风雪毁坏了，而我的毫无损失。”然而，科学机构却有不同的看法。
“能扰乱冰雹的必须是威力很大的东西，”美国科罗拉多州国家大气研究中心的查尔斯·奈特说，“如果你向云层发射一枚原子弹，那可能还会有点效果。”
加州大学的哈里·安德里斯则非常悲观：“目前我们并没有很多技术可以用来改变天气。农场主们尝试使用的一些设备实际上并不是那么有效。不幸的是，”他补充道，“你得花钱购买那些设备来试验它们是否有效。”
据美联社报道，“圣华金谷乃至美国全国各地的一小部分农场主们正将他们的信心以及成千上万美元的钞票寄托在阻止冰雹的大炮上。”